Can a kids' original break through in an algorithm-driven world?
By Marc du Pontavice
21-05-2025
The founder and CEO of Xilam Animation, explains why the animation community should come together to address how new original shows can stand out in a market dominated by known IP.
Before the consumption of VoD rapidly increased in popularity, creating a hit kids’ show was largely a combination of creative talent and programming skills. When linear channels were the most popular television format, kids were offered little choice when looking for animated content, except for switching on the television and watching whatever was available at that very time.
That constraint, however, provided the chance to introduce brand-new shows with no IP background and little promotion or marketing spend. The programming director was the curator of what kids were watching – and discoverability was managed by scheduling.
Since the inception and globalisation of VoD, kids have become their own programming directors. Give a kid an iPad or mobile phone, they will navigate straight to their favourite show – and if they hesitate even briefly, the algorithm will promptly direct them to what it knows they’ve watched before. In a VoD-dominated world, if you launch an original for kids, reaching your audience becomes a near-impossible challenge.
Xilam Animation’s Oggy and the Cockroaches
Moreover, historically, making a hit was almost always a matter of patience and time. You’d start with one season on your domestic channel and it would grow there for a couple of years. Then you’d launch a second season and start seeing the success progressively spread onto other channels in different territories. You might fail in some markets, but you’d be encouraged by the success you’d be seeing here and there.
Making a global hit in kids’ TV was always a matter of building your success step-by-step. This was very much the case with our own original IP, Oggy & the Cockroaches – which we first launched over 20 years ago, and has now been expanded into many other touchpoints, such as consumer products and a new world for a younger audience with our spin-off Oggy Oggy.
Nowadays, on a VoD platform, the launch of a new series is global and instantaneous. However, this means platforms expect a significant audience in a short period of time, and its promotion of the series often only lasts for a few weeks. If your series doesn’t deliver this audience in that short period of time, it’ll quickly disappear into the vast ocean of possibilities.
When considering how kids consume content on these platforms, it’s almost impossible to reach this level of success without a known IP or previous recognition for your series, meaning there are very few series delivering a massive audience that was natively born on a streamer. The immediate and global success of a show such as Adolescence is unlikely to happen in the kids’ business.
In recent years, since VoD has captured the hearts of global audiences, it’s become more difficult to follow the traditional route for creating content, as audience numbers of many linear channels are continuing to drop and become fragmented. We’re facing a world in which kids are being automatically pushed towards content they already are familiar with, with fewer opportunities to enjoy the work of creators who try to create something new and original.
I believe the animation community, creators, producers and media, have an important responsibility towards kids, especially when it comes to increasing the diversity of stories that we nourish them with.
Therefore, we collectively need to question how we can achieve such a goal and amplify the voices of original creators. Bluey is a remarkable example of a creator-driven show, with an original voice and an uncompromising vision, that is by far outperforming any IP-driven show. This should inspire us all.
